Write Endings

Endings are usually harde to write than Write Beginnings. So let's take a closer look at this.

Typical Endings

• Return to the setting/situation/character from the start
• Push past the opening setting/situation/character
• Reveal that the beginning was a facade / sham and present a new reality
• End up at a different place than the beginning, but with some return to a common theme or character

At the end of the story, the Protagonists should come out changes people (as part of their character arc).

Resolutions

• Resolve the central question, but leave other questions open-ended
• Resolve alls questions
• Reinvent or recontextualize the questions
• Leave nothing resolved and instead ask the reader to provide the answers from clues provided
• Reveal that the central question was false or deceptive (trick ending)

Examples from Popular Literature

"After scores of years, wind and rain have worn down the small tombstone, and moss has covered the barrow, erasing all trace of his grave."
The Hell Screen by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

"You will understand. You will know joy. You will be nothing. You will be me."
The Genius of Assasins by Michael Cisco

"In the morning it was morning and I was still alive.
Maybe I’ll write a novel, I thought.
And then I did."
Post Office by Charles Bukowski

"But the hands of one of the partners were already at K’s throat, while the other thrust the knife into his heart and turned it there twice. With failing eyes, K could still see the two of them, cheek leaning against cheek, immediately before his face, watching the final act. ‘Like a dog!’, he said; it was as if he meant the shame of it to outlive him."
The trial by Franz Kafka

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald